Windows 10 review: Is it finally time to upgrade your computer?

4 /
5 stars

Windows 10

MICROSOFT’S new operating system hopes to unite all of your devices – from a pocket-sized smartphone to a sprawling desktop set-up – under the umbrella of the same design, functionality and talkative voice assistant, Cortana.

Windows 10 hopes to cater to mobile, casual, desktop and professional users

Pros – Start Menu Is Back, Fast Performance And Stylish User Interface, Works Great With Traditional Keyboard And Mouse Set-Up, Universal Apps Work Well On Hybrid Devices

Cons –Some Traditional Desktop Apps Are Still Too Fiddly Too Use With A Touchscreen, Unstoppable Data Collection, Expensive For Those Who Aren’t Eligible For The Free Upgrade

Windows 10 marks an exciting new chapter for Microsoft.

The US firm has toned down the drastic touchscreen-focused design it debuted with Windows 8 in favour of a simple evolution of the traditional Microsoft desktop found in Windows 7.

But that doesn’t mean the US firm threw the baby out with the bathwater, in fact a number of nice touches from Windows 8 – including the pixel-sharp corners and beautiful block colours that defined the radical desktop OS and Windows on mobile experience – survived the transition to Windows 10.

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There is no doubt Windows 10 looks the part and, on paper at least, has systematically addressed the issues levelled at Windows 8. But is Windows 10 really the miracle universal operating system it claims to be?

Express.co.uk has been browsing the web, answering emails, writing and playing on the latest operating system from Redmond, version 1511, using a Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

On paper, Windows 10 appears to have systematically addressed the issues levelled at Windows 8.1

Windows 10 Review –

You can't please all of the people, all of the time – according to the old adage.

But that's exactly what Windows 10 attempts to do.

The new operating system simultaneously wants to be the ideal operating system for professionals working on desktop machines, as well as casual users playing Candy Crush and answering emails on tablets. And everyone in-between.

The most impressive fact about Windows 10 is that it almost manages this impossible task.

Microsoft’s latest version of its 29-year-old operating system is fast and slick – if a little unpolished at times.

The Start Menu is back, which is likely to please Windows die-hards.

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Microsoft has brought back the Start Menu – and added some stellar new options

Microsoft has updated the iconic task-bar menu with a crop of live tiles, that constantly refresh with small snippets of information. For example, the News app will scroll through the latest headlines and updates within the Start Menu.

Traditionalists need not fret as Microsoft has also included a Windows 7 style menu structure in the left hand-side of the Start Menu too, so users can systematically rifle through their files, apps and settings.

Users can resize the Start Menu by dragging on its corner. This is a great example of Windows 10 fitting around different users: you can choose to include more live tiles in your Start Menu if you find them useful, or shrink down the window to its bare essentials.

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Users can choose between a discreet, small Start Menu

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Or Windows 10 users can drag out the window to create a larger, Live Tile focused view

On hybrid devices, like the staggeringly impressive Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the OS will expand the Start Menu to a full-screen view when it is launched without a keyboard attached. This tablet-optimised view makes navigating around the tiles and menus with your finger much easier.

Launching an app while in tablet-mode will open the software full-screen, like a mobile device rather than a traditional windowed desktop app, although this can be tweaked in the settings.

Microsoft wants all developers to embrace this one-app-fits-all approach, which it has dubbed Universal Apps.

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This new approach to apps – which simply re-size to fit either the smartphone, tablet of windowed desktop at hand – has allowed Microsoft to unify its App Store and means purchases will transfer between your Windows 10 devices, which could be more economical than the segregated iOS and Mac App Stores available to Apple users.

Universal Apps are a brilliant idea and in practice, work seamlessly. In our time with Windows 10, we would often snap two windows side-by-side, watching the software intelligently re-size to the screen real estate.

Unfortunately, for now the biggest problem with Universal Apps is the lack of them.

Third-party developers have been slow to overhaul their apps to support the new functionality, although this has – albeit slowly – started to change. A number of apps, including Dropbox and Netflix, have been updated.

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Universal Apps expand and retract to fit the size of the display, or the window

Uber recently launched a Universal App on the Microsoft Store, complete with scaleable interface and support for talkative voice assistant, Cortana. But other developers – including the world’s most popular social network, Facebook – has yet to update its software for Windows 10 users, some five months after the new OS launched.

But while Universal Apps cater to both desktop and tablet users, apps that don’t support the new functionality remain infuriatingly difficult to use without a keyboard and mouse.

Microsoft’s own Snippet screen recording utility, Paint, Notepad and File Explorer apps are troublesome to use without a mouse, thanks to tiny menus and icons designed for cursors – not fingers.

Across Windows 10, you’ll also notice icons that haven’t been updated to the new flatter design used across the latest operating system.

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Not all of the icons have been updated to fit the new flat design aesthetic

These issues will likely be ironed out in the coming weeks and months, but it does leave the operating system feeling slightly unfinished and unpolished. That’s only a minor quibble if you can upgrade for free, but is likely to leave a bad taste in your mouth if you’ve had to pay £99.99 for the new OS.

One of the features likely to make you stump up the cash to upgrade is Windows 10’s ability to handle multiple desktops, which can be dragged around and used to distribute your open apps. It’s like having multiple displays attached linked together in your desktop set-up.

This is a feature that’ll be familiar to OS X users, and can dramatically improve your productivity on a device with a smaller display, like a laptop or two-in-one hybrid.

Other new additions include the Action Centre, which replaces the Charms bar and slides in from the right hand-side of the desktop. This brings together a number of quick-access settings buttons, as well as notifications from all of your native apps.

Like the live tiles in the Start Menu, the notifications in the Action Centre are synced across your Windows 10 devices, so you can reply to a text message on your smartphone or action a notification on your tablet and the changes will be reflected across your Windows 10 devices.

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Multiple Desktops are now included in Windows 10 – helpful on smaller mobile devices

It's certainly more useful that the ill-fated Charms bar in Windows 8, but is easy to forget about.

Microsoft Edge, the US firm’s stripped-back and redesigned web browser, is the default in Windows 10.

Compared to the clunky Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge is beautifully minimalist and modern. It also supports a distraction-free reading mode for longer articles, as well as the ability to annotate and doodle on your favourite webpages using a stylus, or your finger.

These annotations and highlights can be useful, sending quick notes and feedback to colleagues and friends. You can also save the defaced webpages to your OneDrive account, which can be accessed online and through almost all desktop and mobile operating systems.

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Microsoft Edge has some great features, but it probably shouldn't be your default web browser

It’s a great start, but the lack of support for browser add-ons means you’ll probably download Chrome or Firefox within the first few hours of upgrading to Windows 10.

Finally, the biggest new addition to Windows 10 is Cortana.

The proactive voice assistant now permanently lives in the task-bar – as well as your Edge browser – and chips in with usual information, calendar reminders, prompts and more. Granted, talking to your desktop computer with a cheery "Hey Cortana" is a little weird, but thankfully Microsoft has also included the ability to type out commands to the virtual secretary.

Paste a flight number into Cortana's search field and she’ll bring up the latest flight tracking information, or ask her to remind you to buy milk when you leave the office and she will seamlessly add the geo-fenced prompt to your Microsoft Account. This information is then synced across your Windows 10 devices, as well as your iOS and Android gadgets too – thanks to the release of the recent Cortana app.

But Cortana isn’t just there to field your questions and queries, the clever voice assistant will also proactively nudge you when you need to the leave the office to make your next calendar appointment, based on the latest traffic and weather information. And if you’re running late, she can book you an Uber taxi, too.

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Cortana can be infuriating at times, throwing to Bing searches far too often

The more you come to rely on Cortana, the more accurate and useful the information and results become. It’s not going to be for everyone, but those who use Google Now and Siri to keep track of their lives on mobile will love the addition to the latest Microsoft desktop.

However in our time with Windows 10 we found Cortana to be disappointingly unreliable.

Typing into the Cortana Search Field works well but more often than not, the operating system would struggle to hear our chants of "Hey Cortana". Setting reminders through Cortana worked flawlessly, as did the assistant's proactive prompts for us to leave the office to make our next appointment but unlike Google Now, the Microsoft digital secretary would struggle to answer simple questions like "How tall is the Eiffel Tower?".

Instead, the desktop-based assistant would throw us to a Bing search in Microsoft Edge.

This would be understandable for more complex questions, but when Apple's Siri and Google Now are both capable of returning answers without searching the web, it's a little disappointing.

Windows 10 Home Edition, installed with default settings, has the ability to send your hardware details and any subsequent changes you make to Microsoft, log your internet browser history, keystrokes, Cortana questions and requests, display advertisements within your Start Menu and even control your bandwidth usage.

Fortunately Microsoft does allow to you to disable some of the Big Brother-esque tracking within its Privacy Settings menu, but certain core data collection cannot be switched off. In a nutshell, if it relates to the health and performance of the Windows 10 operating system, Microsoft wants to know about it.

Final Verdict

Windows 10 is a brilliant start to the next chapter for Microsoft Windows.

The new operating system, which feels like the natural evolution of Windows 7, manages to right many of the wrongs committed by Windows 8.

Universal Apps are a nifty solution to the myriad of devices Windows 10 has to cater for – and does a great job of smoothing the transition as users jump between tablets, desktops and smartphones.

The ability to add multiple, virtual desktops is a huge win for power users, as well as the return of the Start Menu, which caters to productivity-minded desktop users as well as casual users using a multi-touch display.

The entire Windows 10 operating system oozes style, thanks to the sharp edges, smooth animations and block colours. It also feels fast and responsive.

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Microsoft Edge is packed with potential, but isn’t yet good enough to recommend as a default web browser thanks to the lack of thirty-party add-ons.

Cortana can be extremely useful, provided you're willing to the commit to the intrusive data collection policies Microsoft has introduced with Windows 10. And the ability to sync reminders, appointments, travel information and searches with rival smartphone platforms, thanks to the Cortana app on iOS and Android, means users can benefit from the kind of seamless desktop-to-mobile sync previously only available to iOS and Mac owners.

However the talkative voice assistant did not always hear our chants of "Hey Cortana" and would all too often throw us to a Bing web search to find the answer to our question.

At times, Windows 10 feels frustratingly unfinished.

A disappointing number of Microsoft's own apps haven't been updated for touchscreen users. There are a number of icons dotted around the OS which have yet to be updated to fit the new Windows 10 design. And Microsoft still hasn’t managed to unify Settings and Control Panel into one settings menu, leaving users to desperately hunt through multiple menus and windows to find their chosen option.

These minor quibbles all leave a bad taste in the mouth, especially if you’ve coughed up £99.99 to upgrade.